You can block websites in a few ways on your computer. Using the Windows Registry is certainly not the easiest and requires the user to go into the deepest, most basic parts of the operating system. Because of this, it is very difficult to modify if you don't know what you're doing. See the Tips section for the "easy way" to block websites. Bear in mind, Internet Explorer is being used here as the primary browser because it checks the Windows Registry.
Instructions
- 1
Run Regedit. You can go to "Start," "Run" and type in "regedit" (without the quotes), or if you're running Windows Vista, go to "Start" and search "regedit."
2Using the folder structure on the left side, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains\.
This is where Internet Explorer looks for blocked domains. "Domain" is another word for "website."
Click on the "Domains" folder. Go to "Edit," "New," "Key," and type in the domain name of the website you'd like to block (for example, TheWebsite.com) as the name of the new folder. Press "Enter."
4Go to "Edit," "New," "DWORD (32-bit) Value." Type in "*" (without quotes) as the name, and press Enter. This makes sure that any sub-domain (for example, bla-bla.TheWebsite.com) is also blocked.
5Go to "Edit," "Modify," type in "4" for the value data and click "OK". The value of 4 here tells the browser that the website is forbidden.
6Repeat Steps 3 to 5 if you'd like to add more websites.
7Open Internet Explorer and navigate to one of the blocked sites. It should tell you the site is restricted.
